The U.S. State Department has imposed an immediate freeze on almost all foreign assistance programs worldwide, just days after President Donald Trump signed an executive order halting such aid for 90 days.
A cable from Secretary of State Marco Rubio, obtained by CNN, instructed U.S. diplomatic posts to issue “stop work” orders on existing aid projects and to suspend new funding. The freeze affects billions of dollars in programs funded by the State Department and USAID, including global health initiatives, development assistance, and clean water projects.
Exceptions to the freeze include emergency food assistance and military financing for Israel and Egypt, while countries like Ukraine and Taiwan were not mentioned as exempt. The administration plans to review all aid programs within the next 85 days to determine their alignment with President Trump’s foreign policy priorities.
Senator Rubio defended the decision, stating that every dollar spent must answer whether it makes America safer, stronger, or more prosperous. However, the abrupt halt has left humanitarian organizations reeling. InterAction, an alliance of international NGOs, warned that the freeze disrupts critical life-saving efforts, including clean water access, basic education, and anti-trafficking programs.
As the U.S. remains the largest global humanitarian donor, the freeze is expected to have far-reaching consequences for vulnerable populations worldwide.
“The recent stop-work cable from the State Department suspends programs that support America’s global leadership and creates dangerous vacuums that China and our adversaries will quickly fill,” the statement said.
One humanitarian official said the pause is incredibly disruptive and said the specifics of the cable are “as bad as can be.”
Another official told CNN that while they expected there to be cuts or changes to assistance to specific areas, they were not expecting such a sweeping and immediate pause. They said that the humanitarian needs worldwide are acute and a freeze in assistance from the US could be detrimental.
In his executive order, Trump claimed that the US “foreign aid industry and bureaucracy are not aligned with American interests and in many cases antithetical to American values.”
However, one of the officials noted that assistance programs, such as those related to global health, which are targeted by the freeze, are in the US’ interest and had enjoyed bipartisan support.
“Making sure there are not pandemics is in our interest. Global stability is in our interest,” they said.
Democratic Reps. Gregory Meeks of New York and Lois Frankel of Florida said in a Friday letter to Rubio that programs that appear affected by the freeze such as the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) and the President’s Malaria Initiative (PMI) “depend on an uninterrupted supply of medicines.” PEPFAR and PMI were launched by Republican President George W. Bush and have long enjoyed bipartisan support.
Meeks serves as the top Democratic on the House Foreign Affairs Committee and Frankel is a member of the State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs Appropriations Subcommittee, meaning they both have oversight over State Department and USAID funding.
They added that people around the world — such as in conflict-ridden Gaza, Sudan, Haiti and Ukraine — rely on the continued flow of aid from the United States.
“Congress has appropriated and cleared these funds for use, and it is our constitutional duty to make sure these funds are spent as directed,” the letter read. “These funds respond directly to your stated challenge of carrying out a foreign policy that makes the United States stronger, safer, and more prosperous.”
The International AIDS Society warned on Saturday that halting PEPFAR would place millions of lives in jeopardy. IAS President Beatriz Grinsztejn said in a statement, “This is a matter of life or death. PEPFAR provides lifesaving antiretrovirals for more than 20 million people — and stopping its funding essentially stops their HIV treatment. If that happens, people are going to die and HIV will resurge.”
